In the 1998 movie “Armageddon,” an asteroid the size of Texas threatens to collide with Earth in 18 days. To save the planet from destruction, a ragtag team of deep-sea oil drillers volunteers to divert the massive space rock by burying a nuclear bomb beneath its surface and blasting it into two pieces that will fly past Earth.But despite its entertainment value, the film is fantastically inaccurate, said astronomer Phil Plait, who writes the “Bad Astronomy” blog on Slate.com.

read more Asteroid Science: How ‘Armageddon’ Got It Wrong.